What Makes Apple Apple?

It is sad that a true desire for excellence seems to be very rare today. We would do well to look at what we can learn from the most successful company of our era: Apple. Here are some comparisons between the values Apple embodies, and those of many companies today:

Be passionate

Be rational

Lead, don’t follow

Be cautious

Aim to surprise

Aim to satisfy

Be unreasonable

Be practical

Innovate incessantly

Innovate when necessary

Sweat the details

Get it mostly right

Think like an engineer and feel like an artist

Think like an engineer and feel like an accountant

The bottom line: Apple’s unique success is a product of its unique values–which are uniquely innovation-friendly and customer-centric. . . Imagine if Apple’s passions were the norm rather than the exception. What if the world’s leading insurance company or publisher or bank or airline or hotel chain was driven by these ideals? What if you encountered them every time you talked to someone at the Internal Revenue Service or had to apply for a building permit? OK, now I’m hallucinating. But I still can’t help but dream of a world in which Apple has become a lot less exceptional because its core values have become a lot less exceptional. Apple may have patented a lot of things, but it hasn’t patented the values that made it, for a time at least, the world’s most successful company. Apple is proof positive that innovation matters now!